Coiled tubing is in prevalent use to support a variety of downhole equipment in a variety of situations. In many cases, the coiled tubing must be advanced through existing wellbore restrictions such as production tubing. It is desirable in any event to connect the coiled tubing to downhole equipment in a manner which does not greatly increase the profile of the connection so that clearance problems are avoided. A dramatic advance in connector technology to facilitate the insertion of a variety of downhole tools using coiled tubing has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,695. In essence, this patent illustrates a technique for engaging a downhole tool to the inside diameter of the coiled tubing as opposed to designs prior to that time which had coupled to the coiled tubing on its outside diameter. Thus, the advance realized in U.S. Pat. 5,251,695 was a joint with a smaller nominal outside diameter which allowed matching the outside diameter of tool joints located below.
One feature not present in the connection illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,695 is the ability to withstand torque transmitted to the connection. Designing slips to resist torque in a packer context has been tried, as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,501,281. Thus, it is an objective of this invention to allow not only the coupling of downhole equipment such as a mud motor to a segment of coiled tubing, but also to allow the connection therebetween to resist the torque reaction which occurs from operation of rotating downhole equipment such as a mud motor. Accordingly, a unique slip design has been combined with a configuration of slips and cones which are rotationally locked, all in a compact design. With these features, the torque reaction from a downhole mud motor is resisted in the joint to avoid a disconnection from the coiled tubing or a condition where the connection turns inside the coiled tubing. Those and other advantages of the invention will become more apparent from a review of the description of the preferred embodiment below.